It was so warm that they took off their coats and left them inside the car, then they selected an interesting-looking path among the bushes, and started to explore. Certainly it was a delightful garden; it had lawns and shrubberies and flower-borders, and a brook with a rustic bridge over it, and a glade that looked a veritable fairies' dancing-place. Mavis and Merle were thoroughly enjoying themselves. They were in no particular hurry, because they thought when Uncle David came out of the house and missed them he would sound his motor-horn as a signal for them to return. They walked on, therefore, some considerable way along the course of the little brook. Quite suddenly they heard voices, and from a path slightly ahead two girls turned into the glade. The Ramsays remembered them instantly. They had been present at the dancing-class yesterday, and it was indeed the elder of them who had behaved with such extreme rudeness to Merle in the ladies' chain. The recognition seemed to be mutual. They came forward briskly towards Mavis and Merle, who stood still, feeling decidedly caught, but determined to hold their own. "Hello! What are you doing here in our garden?" began the elder girl inhospitably. "Looking at your flowers," answered Merle. "Well, I must say that's rather cool. Don't you know you're trespassing?" "No, I don't!" "Well, you are at any rate. These are private grounds." "So I suppose, but we're not doing them any harm by walking round them." "Oh, Merle, _do_ let us explain properly," put in Mavis, trying to stop this unseemly fencing. "We came with our uncle, Dr. Tremayne, and we got tired of sitting in the car waiting for him, so we took a walk. We didn't think anyone would mind." "Is Dr. Tremayne your uncle? Why didn't you say so before?" "You never gave us a chance!" snapped Merle. "Of course he's our uncle. There goes his hooter. We must scoot back, because he'll be in a hurry to start." "I can show you a short cut," volunteered the younger girl, speaking for the first time, and running in front she led the way, between bushes and through a vegetable garden, back to the carriage sweep opposite the front door. Here Dr. Tremayne was hooting loudly to recall his wandering nieces, and looked not a little relieved at their appearance. "I thought I'd lost you again," he said, as they came up. "So you've been making friends with Babbie? Where's Gwen? Is her wrist better? I wanted to look at it. Yes, fetch her, please, Babbie! I may as well see her while I'm here." Mavis and Merle, with eyes fixed on the distant landscape, sat in the car while Dr. Tremayne made a hurried examination of Gwen Williams's wrist. They did not look in her direction as they drove away, though they nodded a stately good-bye to Babbie. "Think of meeting _that_ girl here," whispered Merle to Mavis. "Isn't she odious?" "I wish we'd never gone into their garden," Mavis whispered back. "If there's anything in the world I hate it's being caught."